Night Lurks (3 page)

“First, I want you to remove your current weapons. I think you will get more out of the situation if you are unarmed. Like I said earlier, you tend to shoot too quickly.”

I do as he says and hand over my holster and knife sheaths. I don't understand his reasoning, but if he has a heat-seeking missile somewhere waiting for me, I won't complain.

“Great. Follow me,” he says and leads me down into the dungeon. I haven't searched every nook and cranny down here, yet, but I don't doubt they are hiding some fun toys in the catacombs somewhere. The rest of the building was easy to map out, but on two occasions, I ended up lost down here.

“Do I get any hints? Is it larger than a stick of butter?” I ask hoping for some kind of clue.

“Yes, it is larger than a stick of butter, and your mind is way off on what the present is. Sebastian wanted to be around for this, but he will understand my reasoning,” he replies and shows no signs of stopping as we continue our journey.

We are in a part that I haven't been to and I am a little turned around. There is just gray brick wall everywhere I look. He should have run ahead and added some colorful banners that said “Nyx's big surprise this way”.

“You know your mind is really amusing. I am glad we are mates because just listening in from time-to-time keeps me from being bored,” Alex says and slows down in front of a wall. He stops and reaches up for a hidden button. “We couldn't have you finding this too early. I am still surprised you haven't gone looking.”

The wall slides away to reveal a dungeon cage with thick silver bars. Inside the cage is Tommy laid out on the cement floor. When he hears us, he sits up and smiles his evil grin that makes me sick. The room is completely empty except for him.

“I thought they wouldn't let me see you again. This is a very unexpected surprise,” Tommy says and quickly leaps up to his feet. Once standing, he walks closer to the bars to get a better look. “Beautiful as always. To what do I owe this honor?”

“Does this mean what it better mean?” I ask Alex getting even more excited about my present. A cannon would still be awesome, but this will do.

“Yes. It is time for you to get your revenge for what was done to you and Phee. Here is the key,” he says handing me a long skeleton key. An actual key, really? Most things are digitized around here. “I prefer not to watch. It will be hard enough for me not to try to jump in just feeling and hearing what is happening and I know this is something you need to do alone.”

“You are the best mate ever,” I say and hop up on my toes to give him a quick smack on the lips. We both know that me calling him that is not necessarily true, but it felt like the right thing to say. I really need to beat someone up right now and there is no one better than Tommy. If he ends up dead from my thumping, that will be even better.

“I will remember not to mention that to Sebastian. Have fun and call out when you are done.” He hurries away knowing that I am going to take only half a second before stepping into the cage.

“So, the great battle between us is finally here. Do you think you have what it takes to square off against me?” Tommy asks. Other than being a bit disheveled and covered in blood, he doesn't look like his time here has hurt him too badly. He might be a little bit skinnier from not getting his usual T-bones, but that is all I notice.

“Oh Tommy. I am a little sad that Alex took away my weapons. I would have loved to try out my knife skills on you for once,” I reply and unlock the door to enter. Once inside, I quickly secure the door and drop the key into my pocket.

He rushes over to me immediately and tries to lift my arms above my head to secure them in place. I don't allow the move to be completed though and I duck out of his way. I end up behind him and he quickly turns to face me before I can get a punch in.

“You are quicker than the last time we met. This might be more fun than I thought.”

I assume he is meaning the time we met inside the Collective while I was breaking a prisoner out and not the time he drugged me leaving me helpless to fight back. “You will find I am a much different person now. I would have never made it this far without breaking free from the Collective.” I move in closer and fake to punch him in the face, but attempt a leg sweep instead.

He is quick and sees the move coming, so he jumps up and out of the way. He lands and throws a right jab right into my face. I don't move out of the way because it gives me a chance to land a solid punch to his gut. With punches exchanged, the fight starts to pick up. Fighting someone who is pretty equal to your skill level gets a bit tedious, as I have experienced when sparring with Alex. I wish me and Tommy had this out before he started taking whatever drug the Collective came up with to increase his abilities.

“You know it doesn't have to be like this between us,” Tommy suggests as I land another fist to his face. I have always said the boy was delusional and prone to spout clichés at the drop of a hat.

He morphs his hands into claws and takes a couple of swipes at me as he redecorates my shirt. The claws don't go very deep into my flesh, but it does smart a little. I haven't seen a wolf change like that before and I think I am going to have to ask Alex how to do it.

“There was a time when it might not have come to this. I could live with you carving me up as a kid. I would have liked to at least fight you for that offense, but I wouldn't have felt the need to kill you. When you assaulted a little girl because of me, that is what drew your death warrant. I promised her you would not be able to do it again and if you are allowed to go free, I cannot guarantee that she will not have to live in fear of you showing up for seconds.”

“Really? You want to kill me over some little piece of meat? She cannot mean anything to you. You are so much more than just a regular werewolf. You have to be meant to rule all paranorms with the blood you have mixing around in your veins. Why would you let something that happened to one of your future servants bother you?” he asks as he tries to deliver a kick to my knee.

It doesn't work and I spin around behind him to attempt to get his arms locked in place. Our size difference makes that impossible and I settle for kicking him to the ground. He rolls over as soon as he makes contact, but I pounce on top of him. Not liking the change in scenery, he morphs into his gigantic, charcoal colored wolf. My little gold one is about half of his size, but I change as fast as I can.

“Are you sure we really have to do this?” Tommy asks even as he snarls and takes a little lunge towards me.

I don't know if he is worried about really killing me or if he finally realizes that I am not going to let him out of this cage alive. “It is a done deal.”

“If I am going to meet my maker, I might as well try for one last hurrah.” He launches me off him and I fly to meet the closest wall. That is going to leave a mark in the morning. I unscramble my brains and stand to face him again.

I know I don't have the strength that he does in this form, but it does give me sharp teeth and claws. I charge him with my teeth bared. He likes the idea and hurries to take the five steps it takes to meet me and we clash teeth against fur.

He gets a good bite on my right front leg, what would be my right arm in human form. I clamp on to his left ear and twist my head. I end up pulling it off. Yuck. I spit it out quickly not expecting it to detach that easily. Tommy doesn't let it faze him and continues his assault on my leg. I sure hope it heals quickly once this is said and done.

With him distracted elsewhere, I move in for his throat. It takes him a second to see the move and that is all I need. I sink my teeth in deep and rip my head back quickly to do the most damage I can. If I thought the ear was gross, this is even worse. A tangled mess of ick is spit out as fast as possible.

Tommy falls to the floor and I know he isn't dead, just severely wounded. If left alone he would be able to recover within a few weeks, maybe a little more, that was an awful lot of gunk I spit out.

“That will put a stop to his talking,” Alex says stepping into the room with one of my knives extended towards me. “I knew it was close and you would prefer to finish the job with this.”

I switch back into human form and take the knife with my left hand. My right arm is hanging limp close to my side and hurts like someone filled it with lava and then froze it. “Thanks. I am really tired of tasting his blood and I don't know that I am able to just rip his head clean off.”

I work my way over to Tommy's body. He doesn't seem to be conscious, which I am actually leaning towards being a good thing. I have killed a lot of people in my lifetime, but I never really knew my targets that well. I have nothing but hatred in my heart for Tommy; however, knowing who my victim is makes this a little bit strange.

“Thomas James Vack, the world is going to be a much better place without you in it. It saddens me to see a wolf that may have, at one time, had a lot of promise be soured by your crazy obsession with me. I hope you find comfort in whatever realm of Hell you are assigned. This is for my pipsqueak,” I say and bring the knife down across to his neck, successfully finishing my head severing. His head rolls off to the side and I continue with my task. I take the knife and embed it in his heart. After already receiving a ton of damage, it doesn't take but a second for the silver knife to do its job. His body is jellified into a mass of sludge.

The task of taking care of Tommy has the effect Alex was looking for. I am a little worn out from it and I think I will be better able to focus on finding Sebastian without killing everyone in my way.

“It was harder than you thought it would be,” Alex says coming closer, but still keeping his distance. I am covered in all sorts of stuff I wouldn't want to touch either. “Mentally, I mean, not physically.”

“Yeah. For some reason when it came down to it, I realized taking a life isn't always all it is cracked up to be. He needed killing and I knew I had to do it, but death is so final.”

“It shouldn't be easy. Over the years, I have learned that myself. Sometimes we just have to do what needs doing. Let's get you in a shower before we meet up with the others. As scary as you look covered in blood, I don't think that is the right message we need to send to Alan right now.”

“You are right. My arm could probably use a sling for a couple of minutes while it heals,” I reply and try to lift it up. It doesn't move like I want and just hangs there. “Yup, definitely need a little something for it.”

“Come on, my big, bad fighter. We will get you straightened out,” He says and takes my good arm to lead me out of the dungeon. I would say I hope to not be down here again anytime soon, but I know we have Alan hanging out somewhere down here, so I expect to be visiting within the hour.

Chapter 4

A reaping I will go

“We may need to bypass Sebastian getting to take a shower with you before me. I don’t know that you will be able to wash all of the blood off with one hand,” Alex says as he helps me out of my shirt. He does it very gently and I am grateful for the thought.

“It will have to be his punishment for being kidnapped because I agree with your assessment,” I reply and shimmy out of my pants one handed. We have made it to my bedroom and I refused to answer any questions as we past Jake, Jonas, Walt, and Clyde sitting in the living area. Alex may have mumbled something about talking later, but I wasn't really paying attention.

Will is still resting peacefully in bed. I am glad to see my little trip didn't cause him any further problems. He is already stuck with me as his sire; I don't think his life can get any more screwed up.

“It only took your body forty-five minutes to push out the bullet the last time you were shot, so the arm should heal quickly. I don't think there is anything seriously severed in there. We just have to wait for the tendons to finish their knitting party.” He starts removing his own garments and within seconds, he is naked before me. If he could put clothes back on just as quickly, he would make a great quick-change artist.

My eyes are instantly drawn to the part of him that is saluting me. Wow. Oddly enough, for being a wolf, Alex doesn't have a lick of hair on him. I have seen him shirtless before and I guess I was stuck staring at his abs. I didn't notice his lack of chest hair. His bare nether region makes me aware of the rest of it. It also makes my mind drift into my dirty corridor. I hope that there is enough soap left after we get the blood washed off to take care of my brain as well.

“This is about getting you cleaned up. I have mentioned before that I cannot help being stiff around you, but I know we aren't going to do anything about that issue right now. Even if you wanted to, we have to worry about getting Sebastian back,” he says and quickly lifts me up to carry me into the bathroom. I have always thought he was joking about the whole being erect whenever he is around me line, but that wood don't lie. I really hope at some point it manages to relax. Otherwise, that has to be really painful.

“I can still admire the artwork while we are coming up with a game plan. Do you shave everything yourself?” I ask really enjoying the feel of skin on skin, even through the muck coating my body.

“No. Hair just doesn't grow anywhere other than my head. I don't know why and I know it isn't a common wolf trait.” He sets me down under the showerhead and turns the knob to get the water flowing.

“Cold,” I screech as it starts hitting my back. It quickly warms up to a nice soothing heat. I divert my eyes from the hunk of man flesh before me and watch pink liquid swirl at my feet. The water doesn't seem to be clearing up.

“Lean your head back just a little and we will get your hair started,” Alex suggests as he grabs a bottle of shampoo.

I follow orders and use my left hand to rake my fingers through my tresses. He walks over with his hands soaped up and starts working my hair into a lather. Standing as close as he is his baby maker brushes up against my stomach and I remember a time where I would have jumped back at the simplest touch.

Now, I am actually holding my hands, or hand since one is currently decommissioned, securely at my side to keep from reaching out and starting something we won't be able to finish. I know it wouldn't take long to get him off, but we really should do it properly. A quick hand job for him and enhanced phone sex for me won't cut it anymore.